Mariko Lockhart,
Seattle, WA.
Collected from The Race Card Project, On Location: Seattle Community Colleges
My dad was black, born in Panama, as my grandfather from Monserrat went there to work on the Canal. My grandmother was from Jamaica. They moved to Chicago where my dad grew up on the South Side. My mom’s parents were Issei, first generation Japanese and she was born and lived in California until being sent to the concentration (aka relocation) camps for the Japanese during WWII. Biracial children were pretty unusual back in the 60’s. I constantly had people ask me, What are you? Or where are you from? I knew what they were asking but might answer, New York, just to see their reaction.
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